Design Diary: Soulful Sisters Share An Arts & Crafts Hybrid In Hudson

With summer quickly slipping by and September’s charms just around the corner, visitors from near and far are still flocking to the scenic Hudson Valley. Exploring seasonal and regional attractions, from cultural to culinary, a rich range of late August delights continues to draw both friends and foreigners to this special place we locals get to call home.

Firmly established as a year-round destination, Hudson is as well known for its creative economy and pioneering spirit as it is for its historic architecture. On this August excursion, Design Diary heads to the eastern border of this busy little city, taking time to visit a charming early-20th-century home and its equally charming residents. The 2,900-plus-square-foot white clapboard house sits atop a wooded hill on a generous lot, high above the bustle of traffic.

The architecture is a hybrid farmhouse with Arts & Crafts movement detailing, a pastiche of styles not uncommon for that era, nor for this neighborhood. The design is human scale and cozy, with its steeply gabled roof, small glass “lights” (an early Victorian term for windowpanes) separated with wooden muntins, a friendly front porch and a wooded back yard. This is a home built for work and play, accommodating to its various occupants over the course of a century.

The downstairs tenants are siblings (Kathleen the elder, Bea two years younger). The Mueller sisters exude an al fresco radiance — evidence of sunny summers spent on both coasts, learning how to live with and love the land. Kathleen is passionate about handcrafted kitchen tools and tasty food. Bea is well on her way to becoming a professional midwife, and studies with a local doula. They share the spacious ground floor suite, while the homeowner (a retired gallerist and art consultant) enjoys the upper floors.

Kathleen’s current project is Tienda Salsita and Sabor De Salsa which, like the house, is a well-crafted hybrid. After living a year in Guadalajara Mexico, the youthful farmer/teacher, in addition to loving the language and local crafts, became fascinated with regional flavors. She reminisced, “Learning to make Chile De Arbol salsa in a molcajete, my very first salsa,” was a turning point in her career.

From that experience, she developed an import business working with rural Mexican artisans and “through the encouragement of friends,” recently added a line of made-in-Hudson fresh salsas to her already tasty repertoire. Perhaps not too surprising coming from a Californian, where their parents are a chef and a seamstress. Mad skills and epicurean genes clearly run deeply in this family.

In 2014, these soulful sisters were living and working at Hawthorne Valley Farm and The Waldorf School in Ghent, but the cramped quarters were getting tedious. Acquiring valuable expertise in biodynamic farming, urban gardening, wild crafting and the making of herbal medicines was fulfilling, but they needed more room and access to urban adventures. After a lengthy search for a suitable apartment, the young entrepreneurs were thrilled to discover a comfortable home with a history in Arts and Crafts and the room to grow a few new businesses.

Built at the vanguard of early American suburbs, this address in the 1920s would have suggested a distinctly prosperous and modern way of life, but would have also indicated a fine, but crucial, line between city and country. Today we opt to merge urban and rural, with a tasting of freshly house-made Hudson salsa. The requisite summer beverage to accompany salsa is, of course, a margarita. Kathleen suggests a smoky mezcal, and her preferred recipe is shared here as her homage to sunshine and summer. Sip slowly and enjoy.

Kathleen Mueller's Margarita

Kosher salt for the glass rim
1 grapefruit wedge, for garnish
1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, very little sugar
Mix all until incorporated
1/4 cup mezcal (or tequila)

Stir, add ice and sugar to taste. Top off with seltzer.